1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a female terminal which includes a tubular box part having a spring piece therein for receiving a mate terminal from a front end of the tubular box part.
2. Background Art
FIG. 7 shows a construction of a female terminal for a general connector described in JP-8-321345A and JP-2003-59565A. The female terminal is integrally formed by press working a single piece of a metal plate. The female terminal includes a tubular box part 510 for inserting a male terminal at a front side, and includes a wire connection portion such as a conductor crimping portion and a sheath crimping portion at a rear side.
Inside the box part 510, a spring piece 520 is provided to pinch the male terminal between an inner wall of the box part 510 and the spring piece 520 by an elastic reaction force when the male terminal is inserted from the front end of the box part 510. The spring piece 520 is formed generally by inward bending a belt-like piece extended from the box part 510 forwardly.
The box part 510 is provided on the female terminal to receive the reaction force applied from the spring piece 520, to protect an interference with the spring piece 520 from the exterior, to lock the box part 510 with a housing of the connector housing when received in the connector housing, and so on.
In the above-mentioned female terminal, the box part 510 and the spring piece 520 are integrally formed with each other by press working a single piece of metal plate. Therefore, the female terminal brings in some problems in which the yield ratio of the metallic material is low to create a material cost, and the mold and the process of press working is complicated to create any costs.